GAP-JOURNAL 2012/13 - AFA

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health impacts. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) praised the host for its
efforts to improve the air quality atthe Olympic Games. “Ithink, objectively, we can
say that the Chinese authorities have done everything that is feasible and humanly possible
tosolve the situation ortoaddress the situation,” the IOC President, Jacques
Rogge, said (“IOC praises efforts to reduce air pollution inBeijing”).
However, four years after the Olympic Games in Beijing, Western compliments on
China’s policy tocombat pollution have faded. The nation’s international reputation
suffers from recent newspaper announcements, accusing China oflacking transparency
regarding its pollution levels. In June 2012, for instance, China's deputy environment
minister, Wu Xiaoqing, asked foreign embassies tostop their independent recording of
the country's emission levels, calling their actions “illegal” (“China’s emissions estimates
don’t add up“ 2012). Dabo Guan found adiscrepancy of 18 per cent between the
emission inventories ofChina's thirty provinces and municipalities and the estimations
published bythe Chinese government in 2010. The gap of 1.4 gigatons in China’s carbon
dioxide inventories which is higher than the combined emissions ofall African
countries was published inseveral international newspapers in 2012 (“China’s Huge
Emissions Gap: Difference Between Actual And Reported CO 2 May Equal Yearly
Emissions OfJapan”).
While the international community continues toput pressure onChina, the Chinese
government does not want to sacrifice potential growth for stronger environmental protection.
However, some industrialised countries have recentlyshown similar concerns at
the last Kyoto Protocol Negotiations, presumably due tothe global recession (United
Nations 2011). The Durban climate talks atthe end of2011 ensured the survival ofthe
Kyoto Protocol after its expiry date, the 1 st of January 2013. Yet, with Canada’s withdrawal
from the treaty, Russia’s and Japan’s ending commitment and the United States’
lasting dormancy, the protocol has substantially weakened (United Nations 2011).
Emerging economies like Brazil, China and India remain exempt from binding emission
targets (United Nations 2011). Why should China take the responsibility to the entire
world, if not even the countries in more mature development stages like the United
States do so? The global attitude towards self-commitment in environmental contracts
has thus experienced adrop as aresult ofthe financial crisis.
China’s Dilemma
China’s economic success has been built on afoundation ofecological destruction. Its
double-digit growth has gone hand in hand with the excessive use of resources, in par-